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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Recipes you can do ahead make for a quick dinner!

We have made breadsticks before and while they were very good, it does take some time to make them as you need to deal with yeast and waiting for dough to rise. But what about when you want something quick and right now? Why not just make a biscuit type dough and then form them into sticks instead? That's what we did when I needed a quick-to-make side for dinner tonight.

These Parmesan Bacon Biscuit Sticks have an Italian flare from the seasonings that are used. The dough is flavored with Parmesan, oregano, basil and garlic. Using very cold butter makes blending easy and results in extremely flaky sticks. Salty crisp bacon is crumbled and added into the dough when you add the milk for another depth of flavor. As you add the milk, leave some behind as you might not need all of it. When mixing and rolling, try to handle the dough as little as possible to help keep the biscuits nice and tender. Once the dough is cut into sticks, a quick brush of milk and a shower of Parmesan tops the biscuits and gives them a rich golden color as they bake.

The biscuit sticks went well as a side to tonight's dinner, Spinach-Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Almonds. Ever since we tried quinoa for the first time, I'm always keeping my eye out for recipes using it. This salad was light, but very filling with generous amounts of all ingredients. Combined with the cooked spiral shaped quinoa are ample amounts of toasted almonds, dried cherries, chickpeas, chiffonades of spinach, refreshing chunks of cucumbers and onions. The salad is then dressed with a fresh and zesty dressing made from plain yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic cloves. If you don't have quinoa on hand, or can't find it, couscous or bulgur would be a fine substitution. Once nice thing about this dish - it is best when made ahead so the flavors have plenty of time to meld together! I will have to remember this one when we need to bring a dish for a picnic; this would be a great veggie addition!

Wheresmymind, do you rinse your quinoa well before you cook it? I had a similar reaction to quinoa for a long time, until one day I decided to finally follow the directions and rinse it . . . then I loved it!

I love quinoa too. I found a "dark" quinoa which the box said is an heirloom variety, at Whole Foods once. It has a more intense flavor on its own, but mixed with regular quinoa, it was great and a nice change of pace.